A few weeks ago, I was reading “the nation’s newspaper” (USA TODAY, of course,) and I noticed an article on the front page (below the fold, but definitely front page) about a chain of boutique hotels that has invested in body language training for staff in order to more efficiently identify client needs–just by looking for non-verbal cues. Now, those of you who have been following this blog for a while may remember that my formative years in healthcare were firmly planted in the environmental services realm, so I’ve had what you might call a front row seat for the transformation of certain elements of healthcare from a purely service-oriented pursuit to one that embraces the concept of hospitality.

As safety professionals (and in recognition that sometimes our roles go way past safety), we’re always on the lookout for new trends and this article struck me as, maybe, just maybe, an indication of things to come in how are patients’ expectations may evolve (the evil part of me wants to say mutate, but we’ll leave that be for the moment) based on their experiences in other hospitality/service settings (Catch phrase idea: “Putting the hospital into hospitality.” feel free to make any use of it you might). Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, any number of you folks have responsibilities for front-line staff, be it support services folks, security officers, etc., the number of customer encounters can be rather extensive. I know from my own practice that those types of encounters can be very powerful indeed when it comes to managing the overall patient experience.

So, the question I have for you this day, boys and girls, is: How do we work toward a more customer-focused hospitality sensibility without completely negating our focus on regulatory compliance (basically enforcement of the rules)? I suspect, and perhaps you can confirm or debunk, that this is going to become an increasingly delicate balancing act. Can we still hold the ideals of safety while enhancing the patient experience? What say you, good readers?

You have to make a human connection with the associates and have trust, be real and transparent with what you say. People will see right through you if you do not have your heart in it, even when it comes to regulatory items. This is going on at our organization in a huge way – it makes sense, sometime you’ll be the patient – what would you want from your hospital-ity AND how safe of an environment do you want to be cared in? It’s about people and the ripple affect you create in your own organization. =)